The SATA hard drive works best for me.

[JonMyrlennBailey]

I have been experimenting with Windows 11 Home and Trainz lately installed on various hard drive form factors. I now have 3 hard drives in my gamer. One SATA II SSD and two M.2 SSD's.

Installing Trainz (including TS 2022 and TANE SP4) and Windows on an M.2 SSD does nothing to improve frame shudder and graphics motion quality whatsoever. As a matter of fact, doing this causes even more trouble.

So, now I have Windows 11 Home on my SATA II SSD along with all my Trainz sims there too. In one of the M.2 slots, is an SSD for Trainz Data Folders only. In the other M.2 slot, is another SSD for storing files for backup and recovery only.

I don't know about your gaming machine, but I've now concluded the hard drive and installation scheme I use now works best for me. Moreover, TANE SP4 has much more frame shudder than TS 2022 regardless of the hard drives employed or settings used, apples for apples.

It's not the hardware, it's the quality of Trainz software. TANE still has choppy moving images in some parts of routes even with the frame counter showing 60 FPS. TS 2022 is much smoother in this regard.

 

[pdkoester]

I find TS 2022 to be better than 2019, that is what got me interested in not using 2019 anymore. I have it installed on an M.2 NVme SSD (980 Pro) and it is way better than the older SATA drives. Not just game performance, but also with file transfer and database utility.

 

[JonMyrlennBailey]

I find TS 2022 to be better than 2019, that is what got me interested in not using 2019 anymore. I have it installed on an M.2 NVme SSD (980 Pro) and it is way better than the older SATA drives. Not just game performance, but also with file transfer and database utility.

To me, it was about trying to fix frame shudder. I have found that drive form factor has no appreciable effect on it one way or another. As compared with many other gaming and simulator products, Auran/N3V Games and Trainz has always been inferior in the graphics motion smoothness department except for TS 2022 which seems to have much smoother graphics motion behavior than TANE and earlier Jet-engine based editions.

I'm still stuck having to use TANE SP4 for many of my personal routes and sessions that were created or modified there. These will not import into TS 2022 without a lot of adverse conditions including track ballast that loses its smoothness and some incompatible older content for which there is no revision by the creator available to work well in TS 2022. Also, for routes/sessions brought into TS 2022 from TANE SP4, AI backs trains up in situations that they should not. Trying to remodify older routes/sessions to agree with TS 2022 is much more trouble that it is worth.

In TS 2022, I have found that FULL vertical sync renders the smoothest graphics in terms of motion, eliminating screen flicker and improved image stabilization. TANE for its relative graphics crudeness still exhibits better moving image behavior in FULL vertical sync.

Another downer for Trainz is the lack of real-world-like weather, skies, colors and lighting. TS 20212 did have lightning flashes and thunder rolls, however.

Will Trainz ever exhibit the on-screen silkiness and real-world-like graphics detail to the level of the likes of Steam/Valve's "Squad" game? I hardly think so. See how lifelike motion, people, clothing, vehicles, boats, helicopters, weapons, gunfire, colors, lighting, sound, weather, fire, clouds and water are in Squad. Why can't fantasy railroaders have "Squad-grade" graphics? I know, tanks and guns and a much bigger hit than trains with the young people. And look at all those lifelike animated humans in Squad we never see in Trainz.

 

[JCitron]

To me, it was about trying to fix frame shudder. I have found that drive form factor has no appreciable effect on it one way or another. As compared with many other gaming and simulator products, Auran/N3V Games and Trainz has always been inferior in the graphics motion smoothness department except for TS 2022 which seems to have much smoother graphics motion behavior than TANE and earlier Jet-engine based editions.

I'm still stuck having to use TANE SP4 for many of my personal routes and sessions that were created or modified there. These will not import into TS 2022 without a lot of adverse conditions including track ballast that loses its smoothness and some incompatible older content for which there is no revision by the creator available to work well in TS 2022. Also, for routes/sessions brought into TS 2022 from TANE SP4, AI backs trains up in situations that they should not. Trying to remodify older routes/sessions to agree with TS 2022 is much more trouble that it is worth.

In TS 2022, I have found that FULL vertical sync renders the smoothest graphics in terms of motion, eliminating screen flicker and improved image stabilization. TANE for its relative graphics crudeness still exhibits better moving image behavior in FULL vertical sync.

Another downer for Trainz is the lack of real-world-like weather, skies, colors and lighting. TS 20212 did have lightning flashes and thunder rolls, however.

Will Trainz ever exhibit the on-screen silkiness and real-world-like graphics detail to the level of the likes of Steam/Valve's "Squad" game? I hardly think so. See how lifelike motion, people, clothing, vehicles, boats, helicopters, weapons, gunfire, colors, lighting, sound, weather, fire, clouds and water are in Squad. Why can't fantasy railroaders have "Squad-grade" graphics? I know, tanks and guns and a much bigger hit than trains with the young people. And look at all those lifelike animated humans in Squad we never see in Trainz.

As fast as they are, your M.2 and even your SATA SSD are still the slowest devices in your system. Your graphics card is by far the fastest even compared to your CPU. What you are experiencing with the video card is the stuttering caused by the data being fed to it slower than it can process so there's a bit of a delay, relative to the speed of everything in a computer, causing the stutters as new data loads. Why your SATA SSD is faster compared to the M.2 has a lot to do with the kind of drive it is. Some SSD devices are better than others and your built-in M.2 could be a less expensive device, meaning OEM to your PC manufacturer versus a nice shiny new one from your favorite component supplier.

TRS22 processes graphics more efficiently than T:ANE and even TRS19, but this version also makes more use of the graphics processor (GPU) for other tasks. Moving script processing the GPU makes the processing quicker overall for the program, thus smoother.

As far as the things mentioned regarding the skybox and other graphics things, N3V has outlined some of these things in the Trainz Roadmap. We highly recommend you view these things and vote on what you think is more important to work on sooner than others.

I imported my oldest route into TRS22, having moved the route along through various versions starting with TRS2004. In TRS22, most of the content loaded except for a few items came in without error. My route development and route-building had a lot to be desired, but the route came in intact.

What I highly recommend doing is checking for content updates. Seriously there are tons of updated assets to update including built-in and packaged ones. These are available on the DLS as well as any content packages you may have installed.

Your Content Store is one source of updates along with Content Manager. In Content Manager you will have to set up a filter to do that and if you need help, I can assist you. Start a new thread if you want help with that. I'll post my content-filters to assist you with finding updates and deleting obsolete assets.